Endstand
As part of writing the article I speak about at the top of the page, I interviewed Janne Tamminen, the man behind the leading independent label Combat Rock Industry (www.fireinsidemusic.com), so It'd make sense to start with a couple of bands off this label.
The first, in fact, features Tamminen himself – arguably Finland's most celebrated hardcore punk band, the now defunct Endstand.
Hardcore is a musical genre I sometimes "get" and at other times don't. For example, I can enjoy listening to the Bad Brains, Black Flag, Gorilla Biscuits and (in 20-minute spurts) Minor Threat. However, a band such as Youth of Today I just find incomprehensible.
So whether me thinking the three Endstand albums I've listened to (Spark, The Time is Now and Never Fall Into Silence) are all pretty decent tells you something about Endstand's brand of hardcore, I don't know. Spark is, in my opinion, the most sophisticated, well-rounded of the three, something the Combat Rock Shop seems to agree with:
As part of writing the article I speak about at the top of the page, I interviewed Janne Tamminen, the man behind the leading independent label Combat Rock Industry (www.fireinsidemusic.com), so It'd make sense to start with a couple of bands off this label.
The first, in fact, features Tamminen himself – arguably Finland's most celebrated hardcore punk band, the now defunct Endstand.
Hardcore is a musical genre I sometimes "get" and at other times don't. For example, I can enjoy listening to the Bad Brains, Black Flag, Gorilla Biscuits and (in 20-minute spurts) Minor Threat. However, a band such as Youth of Today I just find incomprehensible.
So whether me thinking the three Endstand albums I've listened to (Spark, The Time is Now and Never Fall Into Silence) are all pretty decent tells you something about Endstand's brand of hardcore, I don't know. Spark is, in my opinion, the most sophisticated, well-rounded of the three, something the Combat Rock Shop seems to agree with:
"After 11 years together, Endstand offer up their best album."(www.fireinsidemusic.com/shop/item/endstand-spark--cd)
The band's myspace page (www.myspace.com/endstand) has three of the songs off that album on it. Unfortunately, one of these isn't my favourite track off the album ("Eyes Shut"). The other tracks should give you the basic idea, though.
The Time Is Now is a big darker than Spark but is probably as good an introduction to Endstand's music. I couldn't find my favourite track off the album, "Lost Balance", on Myspace, YouTube, the band's website etc., but here's another track instead ("Right From The Start" – which isn't one of the "darker" songs"):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgQkib20CIM
Never Fall Into Silence is a far lighter affair – it's slower and less aggressive. Although I like the two aforementioned albums more, NFIS isn't too shabby itself. Type in "Never Fall Into Silence" into YouTube and there's plenty to sample. One of my favourite tracks is one of the album's heaviest but also its slowest ("Someone Is Watching You..."):
Confusa
Confusa are a punk band comprising four women and one man, although this last fact isn't really worth mentioning (n.b. are The Pixies or Sonic Youth ever described as bands comprisng three men and one women?!).
Their songs, in terms of melodies and harmonies, are quite simple but contain interesting, well-executed time changes from a hyperspeed meter to a Sex Pistols-esque one. Quite rare for a loud Finnish band, the band's two singers sing/scream/bark in Finnish.
The band only seem to have one album out. Luckily for you, the album's opening track ("Viisaammat"), one of the best on the album, is up on their Myspace site (www.myspace.com/confusaband) and their own website (www.confusa.net/index.php?section=discography).
Most of the song is sung are breakneck speed, so much so that I have difficulty hearing what's being said even with the lyric sheet in front of me. The repeated chorus lyric "Meitä viisaammat kirjoissaan" is more discernible, however. What does it mean, I hear you ask? Poetic considerations aside, I'd translate it as, "Those who are wiser than us in their books". I'll save you a lecture this time around on how Finnish grammar makes conveying the same message possible in only three words.
